Chapter 14: An Empire in the West

The Tyler Presidency

• John Tyler

• Virginian

• Vice President of William H. Harrison

• 51 years old (youngest at the time)

• Tall, thin, and slave-owning

• Opposed the Whigs

• State rights, strict construction of the constitution, and territorial expansion

• Believed South Carolina could secede

• Clay v Tyler

• Clay started a nasty dispute

• Clay introduced a series of resolutions designed to supply the platform that the Whigs had evaded in the election

• Clay tries to push his program to Congress without presidential support

• Tyler did agree to repeal the Independent Treasury and higher tariffs

• Vetoed the New National Ban

• Clay is mad and turns the Whigs against Tyler

• Webster-Ashburton Treaty

• Joint naval patrols off Africa to suppress the outlawed slave trade

• American ships still carried slaves which the British were setting free

The Western Frontiers

• Manifest Destiny

• Aggressive spirit of territorial expansion

• John L. O’Sullivan

• God deemed the US should extend itself from the Atlantic to the Pacific and beyond 

• The Great Plains

• Territory to the west

• Had Indians

• Vast grassland from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Mexico

• Western Indians

• Plains Indians were horse-borne nomads

• Arid regions held the Pueblo tribes → sophisticated farmers, adobe villages, corn, beans, and Squash

• Apache and Navajos were enemies of the Pueblos → hunted Pueblos

• Great basins → berries, pine nuts, insects, rodents, small villages

• Pacific Northwest → fish, game, berries, and nuts

• Did not like the White

• Rendez-vous System: annual gathering by trappers, traders, and Indians to trade pelts and hides near Grand Teton

• Mountain Men

• Abandoned civilization in pursuit of beaver pelts and revert to a primitive existence in the wilderness

• First to get around the Rocky Mountains

• Oregon Country

• 42nd parallel north to 54º40’

• British and US claimed

• Oregon fever

• Missions

• Spanish Catholic missionaries had the Indian population under their control

• Indians were baptized, taught Spanish, and stripped of their Native Heritage

• Infectious disease

• High death rate

• Rancho estates

• Mexico passed a colonization act gravitating huge estates to Mexican settlers

• Rancheros cast covetous eyes on the vast estates controlled by the Franciscan mission

• New Helvetia (Sutter’s fort): John A. Sutter built an enormous enclosure for swiss immigrants in California

Moving West

• Santa Fe Trail: the thousand-mile trek from St. Louis to Sante Fe

• Wagon Caravan

• Travelers bound for Oregon and California rode in wagon caravans

• “Prairie schooner” = ox-drawn canvas wagons

• Fort Laramie Treaty

• The government promised to provide annual cash payments to the Indians as a compensation for the damage caused by wagon trains

• First treaty with Plains Indians

• Donner Party: a group of migraters under George Donner who made every mistake possible

• John Frémont

• “The Pathfinder”- who found paths that the mountain men showed him

• Mapped the Oregon Trail

• Christopher “Kit” Carson

• One of the most knowledgeable of the mountain men

• Frequent associate with Frémont.

Annexing Texas

• Stephen F. Austin

• Got a huge land grant from Mexico

• Promised to create buffer between the Comanches and South

• Texas

• Buffer area

• Slavery

• Cotton

• Under Mexico

• Mexico opposed slavery → tension

• Law of April 6, 1830 = Mexican government outlawed further immigration into Texas (aka Tejas)

• Tejanos: Spanish-speaking Texans of Mexican or Spanish descent clustered around San Antonio

• General Antonio López de Santa Anna

• President of Mexico

• Opposed slavery

• Self-promoted dictator

• Called himself “Napoleon of the west”

• Battle of the Alamo: Mexican victory against US-backed Texans

• Republic of Texas: Texas delegates draft a constitution for this new country, but adjourn after Santa Anna’s victory

• Sam Houston

• Tennessee frontiersman who had learned war under the tutelage of Jackson

• Commander in chief of Texas Forces

• Texas Annexation

• The lone star republic drafted a constitution that legalized slavery and banned free blacks, elected Sam Houston as president, voted for annexation to the US, and suppressed and displaced Indians

• Texas was poor and had little money

• Jackson delayed recognition of Texas until his last day in office

• John C. Calhoun supported the Texas annexation

• James Knox Pol

• Former speaker of the house and former governor of Tennessee

• Expansionist, “dark horse” candidate to win a major-party nomination

• Pro-slavery

• Election of 1844

• 49 years old Polk won 

• Polk only served 1 term

• Henry Clay’s third and last effort to run for president: Democratic Party

• Walker Tariff

• Evolution of the Democratic Party: Polk wanted the government to get more land with people who hook with their decide recit

• Polk’s goal

• Slavery

• Expansion

• Wanted to complete Texas’s Annexation

• Buchanan - Pakenham treaty

• Oregon territory below 49th parallel becomes part of the US

• James Buchanan = Polk’s secretary of state

The Mexican War

• Mexican American War

• Mexicans protest Texas’s Annexation

• Polk tricks the Mexicans into firing first

• South (Mississippi River Valley) likes it

• New England was less enthusiastic

• Winfield Scott

• General in chief of the army

• Politically ambitious Whig

• Originally in charge of Texas front, but lost job after quarreling with Polk’s Secretary of War

• Bear Flag Republic

• California declares independence from Mexico

• One month later becomes part of the US

• Lead by Frémont

• Zachary Taylor

• Battle of Buena Vista; disobeyed orders

• Succeeds Polk

• Found Santa Anna due to Polks mistake

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Mexico gave up land claims from the Rio Grande and up for $15 million

• Legacies

• Deadliest war

• ⅓ times land expansion

• First successful war

• West Point graduates

• Significant junior officers

• Deepening of sectional tensions

Chapter 15